1001 Albums Summary

Not for me. DNF’d

Despite the meme’s around it, wonderwall is a great song and so is this album, which I have never listened to in full before now. The album contains no weak points, several all-time classics that I knew and enjoyed without being a particular fan of Oasis or the genre, and knows how to wrap it up before wearing out its welcome.

Some songs make you think about why Linkin Park’s haters are wrong. Others remind you of why they are right.

I personally think the sentiment that Lana is a one trick pony is a little bit unfair generally, but this album is certainly one trick. There are no highs/energetic tracks like “National Anthem” or “Off to the Races” to balance out the slow tracks like in her better albums. It is also an odd choice from her albums to include in this list, given its newness. Despite this, it’s a pleasant album (to me, at least) to listen to, in contrast to some of the ambitious, failed albums in the list. Which means it has a floor rankings-wise.

3/5 Dylan is a wonderful poet whose music serves as a tenuously beneficial medium for that poetry. It is difficult for me to rate an album higher than 3 on strength of the lyrics alone.

It’s just not very enjoyable to listen to. Discordant, cacophonous, overproduced. Not a fan.

Passes the “pleasant to listen to” test, but that’s about it. Nothing stuck out or excelled, so I can’t go higher than 3

An inconsistent, but enjoyable album with several songs that I really liked. Not quite great, but solidly above average.

Nope.

Pleasant enough to listen to on any individual song, and concise enough so that it doesn’t wear on you. But as a whole, there is little engaging about to album to me. Background music, not music I would showcase

My only other exposure to Monáe before this was Dirty Computer, which is a better album than this. Failing to clear that high bar, however, hardly counts as an indictment of this album. I can understand why some people may not like this, as it is certainly an experimental, conceptual album. However, it is stylistically brave and very enjoyable to listen to. Highlights for me include the Overture, Cold War, Tightrope, and BaBopByeYa. Monáe rejects simple beats and melodies in favor of a wide variety of instruments, techniques, and more. And she pulls it off. However, this album does not quite reach five stars for me for two main reasons. First, a significant flaw for a conceptual album, her voice - and thus, oftentimes, the story & message - gets lost in the production a little bit too much. On a first listen, without knowing what to look for, I truly did not pick up the story (unlike in Dirty Computer, which was clear while retaining epic production) Second, and less important, the album did not have enough songs that truly stuck out from the pack to quite elevate it IMO. As much as raw artistry is great, I’m a sucker for having songs that you can truly throw on repeat and love on their own. In this album, I think only Cold War even contends for that. Again, for comparison, Dirty Computer had Dirty Computer; Crazy, Classic, Life; Screwed; Pynk; Make me Feel; and American (again, all IMO). However, this growth is to be expected of an artist, and ArchAndroid is incredibly impressive for a debut album. I think it truly settles somewhere in between a 4 & 5, but I am trying to preserve fives for true masterpieces. Thus, a 4